


Jaegers and deduction

by mynesy



Category: Elementary (TV), Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-06 13:32:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6756145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynesy/pseuds/mynesy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tell me, Ms. Watson. How long have you wanted to be a Jaeger pilot?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jaegers and deduction

  
`Begin recording.`

`Jaeger Pilot: Sherlock Holmes  
Date: July 5th, 2025`

`Session One.`

“Do you know why you’re here?”

The man in question was sitting and staring moodily across the table at another woman whose hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, her angular and freckled face framed by black, blockish glasses. It was clear that she was a professional of some kind if her tailored suit was any indication. The badge that dangled from her pant belt loop was too far away for the camera to see, but the bright splash of yellow indicated to anyone watching that she was from the psyche division of the Jaeger Academy. A tablet sat in front of her along with several other folders fanned out, each one containing information on him.

He seemed to stare at her with a complete and utter loathing despite the scratches that marred his face and he sat with his arms crossed, unblinking. It didn’t seem to faze the other woman though. If anything, her face was an opaque mask of emotion. Brown, almond shaped eyes blinked for a moment before her slim fingers delicately tapped something out onto the tablet before folding themselves in her lap again. Another beat of silence passed and she spoke again,

“Mr. Holmes?”

A sharp sigh left his mouth. He was clearly irritated but his slouching posture remained the same.

“I know why I’m here but your reasoning, my father’s reasoning, and along with your superiors reasoning is unneeded. I don’t need any sort of ‘doctor’ or ‘analyst’ attempting to ascertain my mental state after my previous mission. I. Am. Fine.”

It was the most he had said in several days according to her files. Still, her face betrayed nothing.

“How many missions have you been on, Mr. Holmes?”

“You should know. It’s all recorded and displayed for you in those files of yours.”

“I’d like to hear it from you.”

He seemed to glare at her for a moment, mulling over whether or not to indulge her and answer her questions, but after several long seconds of silence it was clear that he wasn’t going to budge. It was no matter though.

A slim finger moved to the tablet and with a flick, statistics and video footage of every single one of the agent’s missions hovered in front of them, casting the gloomy room in a soft, glowing blue.

“You’ve been in fifty-five missions since your start date.” Her eyes never left the images that floated above her, each one taking in the movements of the jaeger and the Jaeger pilot himself. “The reason I asked is because you’ve been on enough to know that this talk is just standard protocol.” Her gaze shifted back to his form that had been stoutly looking away the entire time. “This isn’t out of any alarming need or necessity. You completed a mission yesterday, and according to Jaeger Academy protocol, this is a scheduled psyche evaluation.”

He had begun to examine his fingers in great detail but after a moment, with her looking at the video and images, and he, sitting in staunch silence, he spoke.

“Do you really want me to believe that this has nothing to do with the events that occurred yesterday?”

The feeds and images stopped, all of them evaporating from the space in front of them. “Would you like to tell me what happened yesterday, Mr. Holmes?”

It was subtle movement on his part; the stiffening of his jawline, the bored, uninterested look in his eyes suddenly turning hard, but it was all gone in a moment and it was as if it had never happened. Most people would have missed it. The camera certainly did. But she didn’t.

“There was a casualty.” His voice was measured, carefully crafted into that bored, uninterested tone of voice that his files stated was something that was a common occurrence with him. Her eyes were on him now, unwavering, taking everything in, not allowing a single detail to be missed. Even with the recording of this entire session, she still trusted her brain and memory more than any piece of technology.

“A death?”

His lips twitched. “If you want to call it that.”

“Would you prefer if I called it a casualty?” she asked, tilting her head to the side just a fraction. His face became unreadable again and the woman relented after a moment. “A casualty then.” He said nothing. “It’s perfectly normal to be experiencing shock and mourning for your partner,” she began, her voice softening in a practiced manner. “No one can plan for this in prevention especially in your line of work.” Her fingers lightly tapped the file in front of her, which explained in horrifying detail the last moments of one Irene Adler. “It’s perfectly fine if you’d like to continue seeing a psychiatrist or a psyche analyst for the next several months. In fact, it’s encouraged.”

“By you?” he asked, his arms folding firmly across his chest. “Or by my father? He seems to have taken a particularly strange interest in my health and well being after my turnover rate for kaiju battles increased.” Sherlock scrutinized her for a moment, before waving a hand. “That seems unnecessary. And boring. Not to mention a waste of my time.”

“It’s for the sake of your mental health. We can’t clear you for anymore missions until the psyche evaluators are satisfied that you’re sound of mind, not to mention that you can’t pilot the _Stinging Bee_ until repairs are complete and the Academy assigns you to a new partner.”

The way his mouth twisted and the flash of something in his eyes indicated clearly enough to her that the last thing that Sherlock wanted was a new partner. The amount of personal information between he and Irene Adler had been both informative and curiosity inducing all at once. The pair together had the highest Drift rate among the other pilots stationed at the Shatterdome. They were a legend, heralded as the finest team the world had seen, but they were known for more than just that. There had been plenty of rumors circulating about their relationship off the field. She had been the only woman who had been able to capture his attention, and the only one who could keep him grounded in the reality around them. Anyone who probed into the nature of their relationship was often met with a distraction from the question or an infuriatingly coy response.

Personally, she didn’t have an opinion on the matter. It wasn’t her job to look into that unless it was relevant to the client or case at hand. She preferred to stay away from gossip or speculation. It wasn’t her life and she had no right to be poking around or spreading rumors about it. They did good work, and really, that was all that mattered to her in the long run. Unfortunately, given the circumstances, she supposed that she had no choice but to dive into the nature of the relationship everyone else at the New York Shatterdome seemed so fascinated by.

“…Do you not want a new partner, Mr. Holmes?” she probed.

“I’m perfectly capable -,”

“You’re not. There’s only a very small percentile of Jaeger pilots who are able to master the control of a jaeger by themselves. The Academy won’t risk it, especially with the state that your jaeger is in.” Her fingers danced across the tablet screen again, pulling a live feed image of the Stinging Bee as ant-like engineers scrambled to survey the damage of the famous jaeger. It was clear that it had seen far better days though. It was practically in ruins, its armor tattered and torn. There was also perhaps something far more jarring than the state of it altogether: it was the giant, gleaming silver sword that was impaled at a diagonal through the jaeger emerging on the other side. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was questionable as to whether or not it would ever be the same again. Repairs like that could take months- years even- which was time that they did not have. And yet the _Bee_ , just like it’s pilot, seemed stubborn and resilient as ever. Her eyes flickered to the man again, tearing away her gaze from the video feed. “I’ve heard that you requested not to be assigned another jaeger.”

“Is that what I did? Did I ‘request’ it?” he asked, his eyebrows arching. They both knew he hadn’t, that was just her putting it nicely. “I don’t need another jaeger. The _Bee_ is perfectly capable and will make a full recovery once the repairs are complete.”

“Which could take months.”

“I’ll wait.”

The look that she gave him was absolutely withering, which managed to coax another amused smile from his lips before she expertly wiped the expression from her face.

“We both know that’s not sensible or logical.”

“I can pilot something else until the time comes.”

“A Jaeger is a jaeger, Mr. Holmes.”

“But it’s not my jaeger.”

The phrase was said so plainly, and yet she felt like she was speaking to a child. A man-child at that. After a moment the video feed disappeared from the air and she had begun to pack up her things, swiping the folders back into a neat pile and collecting her tablet. It was clear that he wasn’t going to talk about Irene, nor did he have any desire to. If she were being honest, she wasn’t sure he was ever going to be able to. She could already see what she was going to be writing out: stubborn, difficult to work with, unwilling to cooperate- all things that had been written in his files in the past. She knew that it had been her job to somehow attempt to get him to speak about his grief, because she didn’t believe for a minute that he was incapable of feeling that emotion for a woman that had meant more to him than simply being his copilot, but she wasn’t going to be the psyche analyst that would be the one to uncover that.

“Is that all today?” he asked, a mock air of surprise filling the air. “I thought our little exchange would have taken longer.”

“I’ve seen enough for me to be able to write out a report. It should be processed in the next day or so, so you’ll be meeting with someone shortly after that to discuss the next steps.” Perhaps another would have more luck. There had to be someone out there who was capable of breaking through the layers upon layers that the man had buried himself under. The heels of her shoes clicked against the floor as she walked towards the door, but his voice rang through the room halting her in her tracks:

“Tell me, Ms. Watson. How long have you wanted to be a Jaeger pilot?”

She had been out of the camera view by then, but it was clear that she had frozen at the door. Sherlock looked at her off screen with an almost expectant face, and this time his posture had changed and he was sitting up right.

After a long pause, Joan’s voice rang out, “End recording.”  
  
`Recording ended at 19:30 hours.`

“What did you say?” she asked after turning to face him, tablet and folders still cradled in the crook of her arm as her eyes narrowed, scrutinizing his intentions behind trying to assume what she wanted in life. The expectant look on his face remained tinged with something else that Joan had seen on plenty of other faces of the jaeger pilots that she had interviewed: smugness.

“How long have you aspired to be a Jaeger pilot?”

There was another pregnant pause as she pursed her lips despite herself. The motion made his lips twitch into something akin to a smirk before it was smoothed away just slowly enough for him to let her know that he had her baited.

Artfully enough, she dodged the question. “How did you know my name?” It wasn’t as if they had crossed paths. She only knew of him because of his files and by word of mouth. He was a brilliant pilot in the field - one of the best that the New York Academy had, and one that the London branch had been reluctant to allow a transfer. The ability he had to pilot a jaeger and sync with it were astounding, some of the best figures that they had seen in years and his intelligence was above and beyond what anyone expected from his appearance. And yet, there was that infamous attitude that almost made him unbearable for people to work with except for a select few who had mastered the art of dealing with a man-child.

Joan had never had to interview him before or conduct evaluations on him although she’d heard of plenty of her colleagues having the pleasure of spending time in the evaluation room with him. He’d never had the same psyche evaluator twice, which wasn’t odd in itself, but each and every one of her colleagues had requested immediately after to never be assigned him again. Either that or he would insist that they never interviewed him again- either way, it was difficult for people to get along with the man. Her specialty often lay with severe casualties and loss, none of which Sherlock had ever experienced so her superiors had never seen the need to assign him to her.

Until now.

“It was rather simple. I saw your badge as you came in. The print may be small but I have perfect 20/20 vision,” Sherlock replied smoothly and she couldn’t help but think that he looked as if he were expecting praise. The two appraised each other for a moment longer before Joan finally spoke up, her voice clipped, her tone even.

“I’ll be submitting my evaluation and recommendation for the next steps in your recovery as soon as possible, Mr. Holmes. If you have any inquires, please feel free to contact the psyche evaluation office. It was nice to make your acquaintance. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

The punctuation of her heels seemed determined to blot out his presence in the room and as the door slammed shut behind her, Joan missed the split second look of bemusement that flickered briefly across Sherlock’s face, completely unaware that the one evaluation would set her life on a course she never would have expected.

**Author's Note:**

> Something I started a while ago because why not fuse giant robots, monsters and some of your favourite deducting characters together?
> 
> I'm not sure if it's a series I'll continue with but who knows!


End file.
